1) Parishes where hundreds of second grade kids are prepared for First Communion every year. The overwhelming majority of these children then completely vanish for the next SEVEN YEARS until its time for Confirmation prep. They don't attend Mass. Their parents don't attend Mass. Talk about sacramental filling station . . .How soul destroying.

2) The diocesan sponsored catechist training where participants were told that conversion works differently for Catholics. Catholics, according to this scenario don't and shouldn't expect to experience any faith-based discernable change or transformation in their lives for a long, long time. None of that discernable, conscious, Peter "dropping-his-nets-and-following-Christ" stuff. Catholics just wake up one day. and find that they are just different.

Help me out here. I'm confused. Would a fair analogy be "Why bother going to the trouble of attending med school and living through the long purgatory of internship and residency because one day I'll just wake up to discover that I've became a brain surgeon in my sleep?"

I always knew those MCAT prep courses were a scam.

As St. Augustine observed: God created us without us but he won't save us without us.